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It is a complicated logistical exercise to put on stage all the elements familiar from the film, and to deliver them with an authentic sense of menace. Often it works, the bed shaking and 360-degree head rotation are very effective.

Classic horror film The Exorcist is brought to life on stage for the first time in this new production directed by Sean Mathias and running at the West End’s Phoenix Theatre until 10 March 2018. But does it thrill and scare audiences as it should?

Forty-five years after William Peter Blatty’s best-selling novel terrified an entire generation, The Exorcist will be unleashed onto the West End stage for the very first time, opening at the Phoenix Theatre in October.

I try to test my prejudices when it comes to playwrights for whom I have little fondness but the reality is that its hard to psyche yourself up in the name of being open-minded. Harold Pinter is one of those writers for me.

This week the London theatre bloggers discuss Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart as double act in Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land, Tom Hollander in Stoppard’s Travesties, now also transferring to the West End, and Anne-Marie Duff in new play Oil at the Almeida Theatre.

There’s a well-earned hurrah (or should that be scream?) for this evening of hokum that’s currently playing in Birmingham over the Halloween fortnight. As the audience take their seats the house lights are gradually built up to a full on brightness before plunging the auditorium into a shriek-filled darkness and we’re off.

Every once in a while the theatrical planets align to create a pairing of such fine actors that it may well be unmatched for a generation. So it is with Harold Pinter’s absurdist gem No Man’s Land, a work that’s always best played by starry knights.

A new production of The Exorcist, directed by Sean Mathias, will receive its UK premiere at Birmingham Repertory Theatre from Friday 21 October to Saturday 5 November 2016. The cast features Jenny Seagrove in the role of Chris, Peter Bowles as Father Merrin and Adam Garcia as Damien.